Mike Tee

Beats flowers, and you don't have to cut the grass!

Part of an old alarm bell?

Only reason I know this, back in about 1975 I was on leave and my wife asked me to dig over the veg patch at a house we had just moved into. How was I to know she had already transplanted a load of tomato plants, even staking them out. Since then (46 years) all I have ever done in the various gardens we've owned is cut the grass! One evening of venomous looks and a couple of days of snide comments about 'staked out weeds', and I get excused gardening duties for life.

You realise this could be a mind game by your partner? I reckon you will be doing all the laundry from now on!

Next they will ban anything with ‘CANAL’ in it

as good as - they are in the cutting leading to the tunnel

Depends which old map you look at - on the one I quoted, it is marked exactly where the bungalow was built (there was a structure here already) so if it ever went to court, the lawyers, as usual, would have a profitable field day.

Total frain bart!! Must be my age..........

On an Ordnance Survey map published 1967, it is clearly marked as 'Buckby Wharf' .... so, maybe?

If they'd planted an orchard when the bungalow was built, it would now be a lot more attractive, and a lot more useful.

I could well be wrong, but if the textured roof looks really good, it was probably done as per 'Higgs' suggestion, with dried sand and thinned paint. That was the only way I ever got a good effective result.

Looks like you can take clear underwater pictures, so have a go at the central boss on the prop with some wet and dry - very often the diameter and pitch will be stamped there.

It was on the various staircase locks I used to look up at what felt like about 60' of wood and feel the odd twitch!

Or maybe lay a live rail on the bottom of the canal - then electric boats could drag a connector behind them. I think this might deter the fishermen though. Can't see any practical problems with this solution..................!